iPhone, iPod, iTouch Battery Replacement Plans Good News For iPads

When iPhones and iPods first became popular, one of the biggest complaints was Apple’s refusal to build these wonderful toys with replacement batteries.

Now, as the world prepares for iPads, techies are revisiting the battery issue and some believe that Apple’s battery policy may be a good deal for consumers (I am an Apple stockholder and own an iPhone).

“Though some critics like to vilify Apple for its practice of building devices with inaccessible batteries, the benefits definitely outweigh the consequences for such a tradeoff,” theAppleBlog says.

The column makes a case that when Apple replaces the battery, it in effect returns a virtually new unit to the customer for $99 plus $6.95 for shipping. All data will of course be lost in the process.

The same deal will go for the iPads, for which Apple began taking pre-orders for last week. Apple isn’t saying, but some are speculating that as many as 150,000 of the units have been preordered, with most reserved only having the WiFi connection, and not the more expensive 3G capable units.